Your dentist should be showing you x-rays and images detailing this. Ensure your dentist is clearly articulating and showing you why the inlay or onlay is needed. While there are a slew of valid reasons an inlay or an onlay can be needed, it’s always okay to question someone when it comes to your health or the health of a family member. The business-minded folks would call this economies of scale. Because the cost of a mill is largely fixed, the more work you do with it, the cheaper the mill becomes to operate per unit created. Milled inlays and onlays are far more expensive than a filling would be for a patient, and unfortunately, there are some out there that will over diagnose in this area for the additional revenue. Some recent research suggests that modern materials may have started rivaling gold crowns in terms of longevity, however, the official verdict is still out. However, while not particularly popular these days, a gold crown is still largely considered the gold standard (no pun intended) when it comes to a functional restoration. Because most people are not as concerned with the aesthetics of a back tooth, it’s not as critical here. While it seems most dentists claim to be “the best”, logic would dictate not all of us can be.įor the best possible result and color match, we typically recommend a crown fabricated by a lab if the restoration is being done on a front tooth (e.g. It’s possible to obtain a result comparable to that of a lab, both aesthetically and functionally, when performed by a highly skilled dentist, but again, this is not always the case. Are CEREC Restorative Dental Products Right For Me In order to determine whether CEREC crowns are a good option for you, our experienced dentists will first. With that caveat in place, the primary drawback is that the quality of a milled crown is highly dependent on the skill of your dentist. If you are reading this a year from now, the situation may not be the same. What are the drawbacks? Well, this is actually a somewhat controversial topic in dentistry, so this is my opinion based on the technology currently available, which is rapidly changing in this space. That cost needs to be covered somehow, so while there is some cost savings to the dentist if a sufficient number of crowns are placed in a month, it’s much more of convenience play for the patient.
A mill and the associated hardware needed to fabricate a crown in the dentist's office currently runs into the six figures. So if you are saving the dentist time, and the crown can be made in the office, it should be cheaper, right? Since we pride ourselves on our transparency, we want to be transparent here as well. This saves the patient time, but it also saves the dentist time because the patient no longer needs to come back for a second appointment. The obvious benefit here is time your permanent crown can be placed in the same appointment as the crown prep is performed, without the need for placement of a temporary crown.